Martin Luther King's 'I Have A Dream'

Almost everybody knows Martin Luther King’s famous ‘I have a dream’ speech. However, do you know what his message was? First, let’s get some background information.

In America in the 1950s, the Declaration of Independence which declared that everyone was not to be judged based on their skin colour was far from reality. People of different skin colour to an ordinary white American were discriminated against. These people include Asians, Hispanics and blacks. The blacks were unhappy with this; they started fighting for equality; to have equal rights. After all, who would want to be treated unfairly?

Martin Luther King, Jr., was a driving force in the push for racial equality in the 1950s to 60's. In 1963, King and his supporters concentrated on Birmingham in Alabama. They protested non-violently by marching. This raised the ire of local officials who fired water cannon and set loose police dogs on the marchers, among them included teenagers and children. The bad publicity and break-down of business forced the white leaders of Birmingham to agree to several anti-segregation demands.

King helped organize a huge march in Washington, DC, on 28th August 1963. His partners in the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom included other religious leaders, labour leaders, and black organizers. The assembled masses marched down the Washington Mall from the Washington Monument to the Lincoln Memorial, playing songs from Bob Dylan and Joan Baez, and speeches by actor Charlton Heston, NAACP president Roy Wilkins, and future U.S. Representative from Georgia John Lewis were said.

King’s closing speech, the one which is well known today, was broadcasted live on major television networks. On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, King evoked the name of Lincoln in his "I Have a Dream" speech, which is credited with mobilizing supporters of desegregation and prompted the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The following year, King was given the Nobel Peace Prize.

King’s message was simple. He wanted people of different skin colour to be treated equally. I think that his speech was a wake-up call to the leaders of America. He was also very brave to do this since he was put in jail for the Birmingham march. Without this speech, people of different races would still be treated with discrimination. This speech had a key role in the fight for human rights and equal treatment of people. For all of this, King did not ask for anything in return. His courage helped wipe out the discrimination in America.

Links:
Text: http://www.mlkonline.net/dream.html
Video: http://www.mlkonline.net/video-i-have-a-dream-speech.html

References:
http://www.mlkonline.net/dream.html
http://www.usconstitution.net/dream.html

Good Leader vs Great Leader

Is a good leader a great leader? Yes! But is a great leader a good leader? Maybe not (I know this is really confusing, but all will be revealed soon. Read on...). You might ask, “What is the difference between a good leader and a great leader?” The answer to that question, to put it simply, the difference is humility. Let me give an example.

The boss of a company is a great leader. One day he decides he should thank people in the company. So what are the criteria? He opens up an employee record book and scans through the pages. Finally he reaches a decision. “I should praise those people who have been doing their job consistently!” he says to himself. He goes round the workplace thanking surprised workers but leaving others in the lurch. This isn’t very good. What would a good leader be doing? Read the next example to find out…

The boss of a company is a good leader. One day, he decides to thank people in his company. He takes out an employee record book and thinks of the criteria. “Those workers who have been doing their job consistently should get my thanks!” he says. Then what of the other workers who have not been doing a very good job? He thinks hard before reaching a solution. For those who have been working for the company for a long time, he thanks them for the time they have put into the company. For those who have no other reason for thanking, he thanks them for working for him and encourages them to work harder.

Of course the great leader might act like a good leader but that isn’t always the case. That is the difference between the two kinds of leaders. One was more humble than the other. This can make a big difference. If you are offered a job with more pay but a crappy boss, would you take it? I know I wouldn’t.
The companies with good bosses are more likely to ride out a recession if all their workers are offered jobs in other companies with bad leaders. The workers of a company with a good leader feel more appreciated by their boss and thus would want to stay on. Who knows; the new company might fire them if their work is not ‘up to standard’.

References (really long ones):
http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:I1nITx3QoeMJ:knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm%3Farticleid%3D377+good+leader+versus+great+leader&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=sg
http://72.14.235.132/search?q=cache:gMtiNIpzB7AJ:www.score-southmetro.org/cgi/sitemap.cgi%3Fhref%3Dworkhardtobeagoodleader.html+good+leader+versus+great+leader&cd=90&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=sg

Adolf Hitler: a Great but Bad Leader

Adolf Hitler. One name that can strike fear into even the bravest of men. Everyone knows that name. You might think he was a great leader, but is it the truth?

Adolf Hitler in 1933

Adolf Hitler was born on April 20 1889 in Austria but lead the National Socialist German Workers Party, commonly known as the Nazi Party. He was the chancellor of Germany 1933 to 1945, and also served as head of state from 1934 until 1945. He served as a runner in the First World War which was a very dangerous job as he was often exposed to enemy fire. He died on 30 April 1945 at the age of 56 by committing suicide with his mistress-turned-wife Eva Braun.

After his imprisonment because of a failed coup in 1923, he was appointed chancellor in 1933, and quickly established a totalitarian and fascist dictatorship. Hitler pursued a foreign policy with the declared goal of seizing Lebensraum for Germany, directing the resources of the state toward this goal. He invaded Poland in 1939, leading to the outbreak of World War II in Europe.

Within three years, Germany and the Axis powers occupied most of Europe and large parts of Africa, East and Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. However, the Allies gained the upper hand from 1942 onward and in 1945 Allied armies invaded Germany from all sides. His forces committed numerous atrocities during the war, including the systematic killing of about 17 million civilians including the genocide of an estimated six million Jews, a crime known as the Holocaust.

Hitler was a very cunning man. He made an alliance with Japan, pressured Austria into unification with Germany and made a triumphant entry into Vienna on 14 March. He also intensified a crisis over the German-speaking Sudetenland districts of Czechoslovakia.

Unfortunately, he was also a very stubborn person. On the 3rd of March 1938, the British Ambassador Neville Henderson met Hitler and presented on behalf of his government a proposal for an international consortium to rule a large part of Africa where Germany would be assigned a leading role. However, Hitler had to promise not to have a war to change the frontiers.

Hitler was more interested in Lebensraum in Eastern Europe then in participating in international consortiums, so he rejected the offer, using the excuse that he wanted the former German African colonies returned to the Reich, not an international consortium running Central Africa.

Also, He argued that it was outrageous that Britain should try to impose conditions on German conduct in Europe as the price for territory in Africa. Hitler ended the conversation by telling Henderson he would rather wait twenty years for the return of the former colonies than accept British conditions for avoiding war.

This was a HUGE mistake because a war really did start (World War II if you do not know) and Germany lost. Furthermore, Hitler would not surrender even though he knew that Germany had lost. He kept pushing until he committed suicide. He should have just accepted the British proposal so he would not have to end his life after just 40 hours after marrying his knew wife.
In conclusion, I still think that although Hitler was a great leader, he wasn’t a good leader. He was way too stubborn for his own good.

Reference:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adolf_Hitler

Calendars: Part 2

When the Orthodox church in Greece decided to switch to the Gregorian calendar in the 1920s, they tried to improve on the Gregorian calendar leap year rules by replacing the "divisible by 400" rule with another rule: Every year which when divided by 900 leaves a remainder of 200 or 600 is a leap year. This rule gives 218 leap years every 900 years, which gives an average year 365 218/900 days or 365.24222 days, which is more accurate than the official Gregorian year of 365.2425 days. Yet again, this rule is also unofficial and therefore not followed.

The length of the year has increased slightly over the millennia due to several reasons. These include: the gradual slowing of the Earth’s rotation, slow changes in the Earth’s orbit due to other planets and the moon, as well as regular effects due to the changing of the Earth’s axis of rotation every 26,000 years. Large scale movements of water and changes in the atmosphere affect the Earth’s momentum. Gravity from the moon, which results in the change of tides in the ocean, slows the speed of rotation. Other processes occurring on or inside the Earth also affect the speed at which the earth rotates.

The measurement of time is currently determined by an international consortium based in France which averages the time from about 220 atomic clocks in over two dozen countries. The atomic clock is the only object that tells time and generates a precise time scale. The atomic clock is ultra-accurate.

Historically, the calculation of time has been based on the position of the earth relative to the sun using noon, when the sun is highest in the sky, as a marker. The length of the second (the length of time required for nine billion, one hundred and ninety-two million, six hundred and thirty-one thousand, seven hundred and seventy cycles of the Cesium atom at zero magnetic field) was determined around the end of the 19th century; this second is thus equivalent to the second defined by the fraction 1/31556925.9747 of the year 1900. In 1967, the official second was set as equal to an average second of Earth’s rotation time. This is because the earth rotates at a slightly irregular rate.

World time is adjusted every year by adding something known as a "leap second." As the time calculated by the position of the sun differs from the time calculated by the atomic clock, it is necessary to adjust international time standards to match the position of the Earth.

INTERESTING FACTS:
-the smallest amount of time that can be measured is six hundred million billion billion billion billionths of a second. This is known as Planck time after the person who discovered it, Max Planck (1858-1947).
-Greenwich time is the same as London time during winter time, but London is 1 hour ahead of GMT during summer!
-Australia has both horizontal and vertical time zones during summer. What’s more, North Australia does not use DST but the South does.

I think that math was really important in the invention of the calendar. Without math, we would be celebrating days on the wrong day (note: today’s historians think that Jesus was born in 4BC. So when Dionysius Exguus invented the term AD, he started off with year 1 not 0 as the number 0 hadn’t reached Europe yet. This means that the real Millennium celebrations were in 1996 and everyone missed it!). Except for that, I still think mathematics is crucial. At least we are only four years off the real time. If the calendar had not been properly invented, we’d be centuries off.

Acknowledgements:
Horrible Science: THE TERRIBLE TRUTH ABOUT TIME by Nick Arnold
http://www.google.com.sg/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:calendar&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/index.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_XIII

Calendars: Part 1

A calendar is a system of timekeeping that defines the beginning, length and divisions of the year. In the past, when the calendar had not been invented yet, people could only tell what time of the year it was by the weather. In summer, the days were longer and hotter while in the winter the days were short and cold. Soon people figured out that a year had passed when the sun was in the same point in the sky as it was the previous year.

But humans wanted to measure shorter amounts of time than years, so they began using the moon to measure shorter periods of time. Unfortunately, the time it takes for the moon to go around the earth once (28 days) is not exactly one month.

The calendar (Gregorian calendar) we use today has approximately either 365 or 366 days a year (366 days on leap years). It is divided into 12 months of alternating number of days (30 or 31 except for February which has 28 days or 29 on leap years) that have no relationship to the motion of the moon. In the Gregorian calendar, the tropical year is approximated as 365 97/400 days = 365.2425 days. Thus it takes approximately 3300 years for the tropical year to shift one day in the Gregorian calendar. This approximation is achieved by having 97 leap years every 400 years. An astronomer by the name of John Herschel (1792-1871) thought that a better approximation to the length of the tropical year would be 365 969/4000 days or 365.24225 days. This would mean 969 leap years every 4000 years, rather than the 970 leap years in Gregorian calendar. This could be achieved by dropping one leap year from the Gregorian calendar every 4000 years, which would make years divisible by 4000 non-leap years. This rule, however, has not been used.

references:
Horrible Science: THE TERRIBLE TRUTH ABOUT TIME by Nick Arnold
http://www.google.com.sg/search?hl=en&defl=en&q=define:calendar&sa=X&oi=glossary_definition&ct=title
http://www.webexhibits.org/calendars/index.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Gregory_XIII
http://www.eviple.com/in-heh/img/gregory-xiii.jpg

Who really founded Singapore?

In this essay, I will be writing on Raffles and Farquhar and which of these men should be called the ‘founder’ of Singapore.

Let me start with Raffles and the part he played in the founding of Singapore. Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles was born on the 6th of July, 1781. He died on the 5th of July 44 years later. One of the reasons Raffles should be called the founder of Singapore is that he was the person who decided to search for a British base at the southern part of the Malacca Straits. He was also the person who received Lord Hastings’ authorization and he chose to stay with his choice of Singapore even though Farquhar wanted to go with Kerimuns (the Kerimuns are a group of islands). This means that he ‘founded’ Singapore, because Farquhar only stepped in later to help with the construction of Singapore when Raffles had to leave it.

William Farquhar was born on the 26th of February 1774 and died at the age of 68 on the 13th of May 1839. When Raffles had left Singapore after signing a treaty with Sultan Hussein and Temenggong Abdul-Rahman in which they would receive a fixed annual allowance in exchange for allowing the East India Company to use Singapore as a trading port, he left Farquhar in charge of it. Farquhar had a difficult job because he had to clear some of the jungle which covered almost the entire island; he also had to start building defences for Singapore. He also had to draw people to come and live in Singapore, hire policemen to keep the law as crimes took place very often then and make sure there was a constant supply of food for the people in Singapore. One of his plans was extremely successful. At that time, pests were quite common and Farquhar had to get rid of them. He devised a scheme to pay anyone who killed a rat or a centipede and it worked. However, Farquhar had a hard time communicating with Raffles who was in Bencoolen so he had to lead Singapore for more than three years. When Raffles came back in 1822, he was angry at Farquhar because he had not followed what Raffles had instructed him to do. These include legalising gambling, being ‘okay’ with slavery and building houses where Raffles had instructed him specifically not to. He then dismissed Farquhar.

In conclusion, I feel that Raffles was not right to dismiss Farquhar as the good things Farquhar had done out numbered the bad. Farquhar should be called the founder of Singapore as he had done almost if not all the work to build Singapore up from the fishing settlement that it once was. Raffles just left Singapore after signing the treaty and appointed Farquhar to do all the work. Raffles just left Singapore after signing the treaty and appointed Farquhar to do all the work and did not do any himself. In my opinion, I think the real founder of Singapore is Lieutenant Colonel and later Major-General William Farquhar.

References:
http://rmbr.nus.edu.sg/history/raffles.htm
http://www.postcolonialweb.org/singapore/history/chew/chew3.html
http://infopedia.nl.sg/articles/SIP_501__2008-12-15.html
http://infopediatalk.nl.sg/biographies/SIP_501__2008-12-15
Singapore: from Settlement to Nation: Pre-1819 to 1971, Singapore: EPB Pan Pacific

SAF regular collapses

Lim Kian Hong, 52, a Second Warrant Officer in the army, died on March 13 after collapsing in a run that day. He was half-way through a thrice weekly 2.4km run when he collapsed. He was first taken to Nee Soon Medical Centre where doctors failed to resuscitate him. He was then taken to Tan Tock Seng hospital where he died an hour later.

Mr Lim’s daughter, Corinne, 20, will enter university soon, said he ran over 5km every weekend. She also said he had very good stamina and seldom fell ill. Corrine has two younger siblings- Camille and Jerald. Corinne described her father as a devoted family man who had drawn close to the three of them since their mother's death. Mr Lim had lost his wife to cancer 10 years ago but remarried. He was home every night to have dinner with them and also ironed their clothes.

Source:
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_350062.html

Wow, I feel really sorry for this man. He was so close to his family. This incident must come as a shock to his family members as the report states that “he ran more than 5km every weekend, had 'very good stamina' and was seldom ill”.
If someone as fit as him could collapse while running a routine 2.4km run, what about the schooling children? Our NAPFA requires us to run 2.4km so I hope the same thing will not happen to us (I don’t wanna’ die!).

There should be more measures put in place to ensure this does not happen again. For example a short running test should be carried out and the time recorded and checked against previous results. A great difference in time could be because the runner is not well and should not be forced to run the 2.4km.

This is only one solution; I’m sure there are many others. Let us not let this happen again. If you are feeling sick before or during a run, stop running and tell someone. It is all right; you can run again but if you had died you would never be able to run forever.

The Lottery

Read “The Lottery” by clicking on this LINK (note: there are several errors in the story).

The story is quite relevant to today’s society. For example, Tessie, Bill Hutchinson’s wife, is like some people today. She only cared about herself and not her children. When she knew that she had a chance of getting killed, she tried unsuccessfully to drag her grown daughter into the mess even though she knew that daughters drew together with their husband’s family.

This happens very often these days. When you are picked to do something you do not like to do or do not want to, you might (which is most of the time the case) try to ‘sabo (slang for sabotage)’ your friends by saying:

You: “Not me! It’s not my fault!”
Teacher: “Then who?”
You: “Erm…Ah! I know! That guy sitting over there make me one!”

(Sorry about the Singlish. I was trying to make it as realistic as possible.)
Do you find this familiar? Perhaps you have done this before (I can see you blushing)

Another example is that people have no problem with certain things until it happens to them. I will write you another familiar conversation:

Friend: Argh! I forgot to do my homework leh!
You: Ha ha! I already finish yesterday.
Friend: Can help me do or not? Please lah.
You: No way. Let you get scolded by teacher then I happy.
Friend: You are so bad.

The next day…

You: Oh, no! I forgot to do my homework!
Friend: Too bad! I already finish yesterday.
You: Can help me do or not? Please lah.
Friend: No way. That day you sabo me now I sabo you back
You: Noo…

(Sorry about the Singlish again)

This was exactly like Tessie who did not find anything wrong with having the lottery until she was the victim of one. We should not act like the characters in the lottery or we will become like them: cold-hearted and mindless; following everyone else.

Free School Meals in the US

In the United States, a school food service group said at a US Senate hearing on Wednesday that more poor children should be allowed to eat for free at school and the government should pay higher reimbursement rates for school meals.

Right now, most school breakfasts and lunches are free for really poor children. Those who are slightly richer are offered school breakfasts and lunches at reduced prices. The president of the school meal group, Katie Wilson, wanted the reduced price meals to be turned into free meals as well.

The school meal group also asked for an additional 35 cents reimbursement for each lunch and an extra 20 cents for each breakfast served. They hope that with this reimbursement, the food price increases would be offset so that the school can sell better quality meals which are more value for money.

Source:

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/World/Story/STIStory_346199.html

I think that this is a good move to start the war against childhood hunger. By giving more reimbursement to offset food prices, meals which are of better quality and hopefully more nutritious can be served to hungry children who have no money to spend on food.

In school, meals are extremely important as it gives children energy to get through the school day. If the children have no energy, they will not be able to pay attention in class and their results will suffer. We should not be taking food for granted; if you felt really lethargic, would you be able to concentrate?

Being able to eat more food (nutritious food!) can also make you less prone to illnesses as the body has enough strength to fight the ‘bugs’ off. Poor children in Africa are always hungry and are so thin you can see their bones prominently; they always look tired because they have no energy and some even resort to eating insects.

Some of us don’t even finish our food. That’s how much we people here in Singapore waste food. I’m not talking about those people who leave 1 or 2 grains of rice on their plate; I’m talking about those people who eat a quarter of the food and throw away the rest. Whenever you are thinking of dumping that plate of chicken rice because you are full or something, think of the children in Africa.

NTU student falls to death

Mr Hartanto Widjaja, an Indonesian and a final-year student at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), plunged 4 floors to his death. Reports state that on the 2^nd of March 2009, he was having a discussion with NTU Professor Chan Kap Luk about his final-year project when he suddenly pulled out a knife and stabbed the professor in the back before slitting his own wrists, running one story down and climbing onto the roof of a bridge that connected the building he was in to another opposite. He then fell off the glass roof and plunged 4 storeys to his death. Fortunately Professor Chan is in stable condition.

Picture Source:

http://www.straitstimes.com/STI/STIMEDIA/image/20090303/ntu-widjaja.jpg

Why did Mr Widjaja do this? The answer was that his scholarship had been revoked two weeks before this incident happened. He had been warned three times to improve his grades but he would not try, resulting in his scholarship being terminated. His Grade Point Average had fallen below the 3.5 mark which is lower than a B.

Anyway, how did he sneak a knife into the campus in the first place? Does the campus have such low security that you can sneak in any weapon you want? If that could happen, a terrorist disguised as a student could sneak in a bomb and blow up the entire school.

Just because your scholarship has been terminated, does not mean it is the end of the world. Everything can be resolved; there is no need to overreact. If you commit suicide over some trivial thing, it is not you who suffer (Duh? If you are dead your suffering is over!), it is also not your teacher who will suffer (Your teacher is just your teacher. If you die, at most the teacher will just mourn for you; it’s not like the teacher’s life will change. The teacher could become so traumatized that he or she would quit but most likely it won’t affect them in the long run.).

The people who are really affected are your parents. They spent so much love and money raising you and you waste it all when you end your life. Who is going to care for them when they are old? Imagine the pain they will experience when their hard work is suddenly gone.

The person who committed suicide over a scholarship shouldn’t have done that. Come on, it’s just a scholarship. It won’t get you kicked out of school. The newspaper said so. So all of you who are reading this remember this: Do not end your life over anything. It is not worth it; it can be solved.

Source:

The Straits Times-2^nd March 2009

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_345743.html

http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_345645.html

Fake post

Strike freedom! (drawn by yours truly if you do not know)

WOO HOO! I TOLD YOU I WAS GOING TO POST SOMETHING. UNFORTUNATELY, I DON’T HAVE TIME TO PUBLISH A PROPER POST. SO YOU WILL JUST HAVE TO DO WITH THIS FOR NOW (depending on your computer, you might not be able to see the different fonts in this post). PLUS THE CRAZY CHANGING FONT. HOPE YOU LIKE THE PICTURE. UNTIL THE NEXT POST, GOODBYE!